Despite narrowing over the past decades, substantial gender gaps in wages as well as time use with respect to paid and unpaid labour and care persist and the speed of change has slowed over the past decade in many Western countries. Research consistently shows a widening gap over time between increasingly gender-egalitarian gender role attitudes and actual patterns of behaviour by men and women (Lück 2006; Wiesmann et al. 2008). A critical juncture for the reproduction of gender inequalities in the labour market and the family is the transition to parenthood (Schober, 2013; Grunow and Evertsson, 2016).

This presentation will first show average changes in time use after childbirth among mothers and fathers. It will present a theoretical framework considering how parents’ identities, economic resources, gender consciousness and culture impact the extent to which the gender division of labour becomes more traditional among couples as they become parents. Secondly, it will go on to review studies which examined the consequences of a gendered division of paid and unpaid labour, including gender differences in parental leave durations and work hour reductions, for mothers’ and fathers’ wages and life-time earnings. It will also point to some recent studies which investigate how gender (in)equality in the division of labour may affect family and child outcomes e.g. partnership satisfaction and parent-child-relationships. It will conclude by reflecting on the effectiveness of measures which may support couples in achieving a more egalitarian division of labour in line with their aspirations.